Service Managers Class Preparation

[jasenlee]

I'm getting ready to start the first week of my Service Managers class on Monday and I'm freaking out a little bit. You see I've always been a visual learner rather than a book learner. I'm trying to re-read sections of the Red Book right now and I feel like some of it I've never read before (especially Financial Management). I have read it but the problem is I feel like it's going right in my head and then right out. My question to the rest of you... did anyone else feel this way? If so how did you make it through? Is it okay that I'm not going to be an expert when I walk in the door. During my intake interview with the instructor he told me that a lot of the students started preparing over a month ago and have read it twice. I feel like I'm going to be lost. What can I do?

Thanks,

Jason

[UKVIKING]

You should have had the foundation and passed the exam before taking the mgr's course

The material is not suppose to be unknown to you.

Intake interview... hm never heard of that.... Liz ?

The week long course issuppose to spend one day on each aspect of the service support and the service delivery material

You ' ll do fine if you have been itil'ing for a while as a foundation holder or practitoner
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[LizGallacher]

I have not heard of an interview before the course before. It may be that the training company wants to improve its success rate, and so is ensuring that people know what is expected of them in advance. This is not a bad idea!
In my experience, virtually no-one has really read both books before the course. Again, it would help a lot, but is not essential/ I say to my students that they should be aware of what the books say (Skimming through them as a minimum), so that they know where to go to find the information later.

The students who ar concerned about not having done enough work are NOT the problem. The ones who arrive on the first day, having not given a thought to ITIL since they walked out of their Foundation exam, and expect to learn everything during the course are! You would be amazed at how many look blank when I ask what the cost elements are (THE SPA - Transfer costs, Hardware, External, Software, People, Accommodation) or cannot remember what an FSC or CAB/EC is! We have to waste time re-visiting basic Foundation stuff first! I am seriously considering setting a mock Foundation as the first thing on the first day, and then telling those who fail to score at least 30/40 that they need to put in some serious revision time.

So - revise your Foundation definitions before your course, skim through the books, then attend the course. Pay attention during the course, think about the benefits, costs, implementation steps and connections with other processes for each process, and get as much mock exam practice as you can (This is where candidates fail - they may know the material, but not answer the question properly, or run out of time). After each topic in the course, re-read the relevant chapter, more slowly, making notes.
Good Luck!!
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[dboylan]

If Jason is taking the course in North America, then I bet I know what training organization he has signed up with. If it's the same one that I took my SM course with, there was a preliminary conference call between the instructor and the students. Its intent was to set the expectation for what would be covered and the level of knowledge that the student was expected to bring to the class.

I am pretty sure that they told us that reading the Service Support book would be a good idea prior to the first week, but don't worry. I am also a much more visual learner and found reading the book an incredibly difficult way to re-familiarize myself with the material.

But having said that, I took the course, and passed the exams on the first attempt. You can too.